


The Talk

by Michelle_A_Emerlind



Category: The Walking Dead (TV), The Walking Dead - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Explicit Language, M/M, Prison, Protective Merle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-07
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-02-28 12:53:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2733272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michelle_A_Emerlind/pseuds/Michelle_A_Emerlind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merle knows what's up and he wants to have a talk with Rick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Talk

Daryl and Merle returned together after the incident at the Yellow Jacket and the prison group reluctantly accepted them in. Daryl was welcomed with open arms and rushed into the regular cellblock, but the door was slammed in Merle's face, leaving him in the empty room outside the group’s cells. He complained about it. _Hard_. But Daryl said it would be alright and then he left him and slided up easy--too easy--to Rick's side. And that's how Merle knew.

So when the rest of the group was tucked away for the night, Merle pssted Rick, intending to give him a good, long talking to. Rick walked up to the bars of the door with a firm set expression. He didn't offer to go into the room with Merle (why would he?), but he did raise his eyebrows and wait for Merle to speak.

"You fucking my baby brother?" Merle said, voice low but hard.

Rick blinked and Merle couldn't tell in the twilight if he was blushing or not. Merle counted the ways he would kill the son of a bitch if he was.

"Come on. Tell old Merle. You fucking my baby brother?"

Rick put his hands on his hips, set his jaw and nodded a couple of times at the floor. "Yeah, yeah I am."

Merle's nostrils flared and he lunged through the bars, but Rick stepped easily back. "You bastard!" Merle growled. "That's my kin, man. I'm going to rip your hide off."

Rick held up his hands. "Hey, now," he said, "I'm going to do everything in my power to keep him safe. I promise."

"Like hell you are," Merle snapped. "You gonna take a bullet for him?"

"Yes," Rick said with deadpanned honesty. Merle blinked as Rick continued. "I would any day. I will do anything to protect him."

Merle growled. "Right. You just want a piece of ass to bend over one of those cell beds, huh? Bend over and then shut him up in one later. This ain't the fucking Georgia housewife show and Daryl's damn not domestic."

Rick looked him hard in the eyes. "I'm not doing anything he doesn't want to do. He says no, I back off."

Merle wrinkled his nose, stared Rick in the eye and moved his face so his checks were pressed up against the bars. "Prove it."

Rick ground his teeth. "I don't have to prove anything to you."

Merle was hoping he would say that. He hauled back, put some feeling into it, and spit right into Rick's face.

Rick took a step back and then slowly wiped off his chin and cheek. He stalked off into the prison and Merle started yelling things at him that mostly invovled "pussy" and "asslicker." After a minute, Rick walked past, a confused Daryl in tow.

"What's going on here?" Daryl asked, looking between them.

"Your brother," Rick said, frowning harder, "spit in my face."

Merle jumped right in. "He was being a dick!"

"I was explaining myself!"

"You're fucking my baby brother!" Merle tried to reach through the bars to strangle Rick, but he didn't quite have the reach.

"Alright, alright!" Daryl slapped Merle's hands down and turned to Rick. "What's this?"

Rick fumed, but shook his his head and looked Daryl in the eye. "I told him I'd take care of you. And that it was your decision."

"Daryl," Merle whispered through the bars. "You cannot be serious. There's no copper in the world that is worth you."

Daryl just shrugged and turned to Rick. He grabbed Rick by the back of the head and pulled Rick's mouth to his own. Merle balked and started sputtering.

Daryl stopped and turned to Merle. "You're just going to have to get used to it."

Merle frowned and looked between the two of them and then rolled his eyes at Rick’s doe-eyed fawning over Daryl. He sighed loudly into the prison and then reluctantly held out his hand to Rick through the bars. Rick looked at him uncertainly, but shook his hand.

Merle waited for about two seconds before he jerked Rick’s hand forward so that he could get ahold of Rick’s neck. “YOU FUCKER!” he yelled and started throttling him, but he didn’t really squeeze all that hard and Daryl saw it and smiled.


End file.
